Putnam: Small business owner in Lansing's Stadium District says he's getting squeezed out

David Hanson said his bike shop, Riverfront Cycle, has been in the same location since 1988. A dispute and a bike path has eliminated all parking for his customers.
Lansing State Journal

Riverfront Cycle lost parking spots in dispute with neighbor

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Telamon Corp. forbids parking by Riverfront Cycle customers. A sign shown June 11, 2018 warns customers parking there they will be towed. The corporation's offices are in the background.(Photo: Judy Putnam/Lansing State Journal)Buy Photo

LANSING – A longtime Lansing bicycle shop, Riverfront Cycle, is on the verge of closing its doors after losing parking spaces in a dispute with a neighbor.

David Hanson said his small business on Shiawassee Street near Cedar Street is struggling, and he’s not sure what will happen when his lease expires in November.

His customers have no place to park without threat of towing or ticketing. He said he feels squeezed out of the gentrifying Stadium District.

“We’re authentic. We’ve been here forever,” Hanson said. “I’ve just been trying to make it. It’s been hard.”

Once a ragtag area of empty lots and auto-related businesses with plenty of open parking, it’s now a hot spot. Lansing Brewing Company opened across the street in 2015 and Michigrain Distillery earlier this year in the same block.

Hanson’s parking woes go back to 2010 when he purchased the building where he started his bike shop in 1988. He said an easement to the parking lot wasn’t recorded with the deed, something he discovered a few years too late.

Instead, the lot was purchased in 2012 by Telamon Corp., which runs Head Start migrant programs around the state. Telamon’s offices face Cedar Street.

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Riverfront Cycle, shown June 11, 2018, has been located on Shiawassee Street since 1988 but now has lost all of its customer parking.(Photo: Judy Putnam/Lansing State Journal)

Telamon agreed to lease three parking spots to Riverfront. That worked until April, when the bike store was kicked out of the lot. Signs have been posted specifically forbidding Riverfront customers from parking there.

Hanson said the lot is often empty in the daytime but his customers don’t want to risk being towed, even when they need to stop just for a few minutes.

'Unwelcoming'

“It’s so unwelcoming with those signs," he said.

Patricia Raymond, Telamon’s state Head Start director, said Telamon was getting routine notices that Hanson’s liability insurance to cover the three parking spots was about to lapse.

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Competing signs shown June 11, 2018 on the side of Riverfront Cycle's business. Telamon Corp. offices are in the background.(Photo: Judy Putnam/Lansing State Journal)

“There is a liability issue for us. We have to protect ourselves, our organization,” she said. “We wanted to work with him, and it’s been very, very frustrating.”

She said he often didn’t pay his $60 a month fee to lease the spots; Hanson said he never got bills and would catch up by paying a few times a year.

Hanson also said he never let his insurance lapse though he was late in paying. He got behind in his bills and took a full-time job to keep the shop open.

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David Hanson, pictured June 11, 2018, started working at Van's Bike Shop in 1977 then opened his own store in 1988.(Photo: Judy Putnam/Lansing State Journal)

Compounding his parking problem was the fact that, in 2016, the city repaved the 500 block of Shiawassee and eliminated street parking in front of his shop.

The paving project created a dedicated turn lane, and on-street parking was replaced with a bike lane. It’s a one-block bike lane, however, and isn’t connected to a bike lane on either end of the block.

The lane will be connected to a longer bike route next year, said Andy Kilpatrick, public service director for the city. The bike lane on Shiawassee was done in anticipation of a planned 1.7-mile Eastern Connector bike path that will connect Frandor to Lansing Community College.

No public parking either

Kilpatrick said it was more prudent to add the bike lane during road improvements than to grind out markings and repaint them later.

It didn’t hurt the bicycle business at the time, but it hurts now. The closest public parking is metered spaces on Pere Marquette about two blocks away.

Kilpatrick said that Hanson’s best option is to negotiate private parking with another property owner.

Pat Gillespie, owner of the Gillespie Group, the area’s major developer, purchased Hanson's building from him last year and is now his landlord.

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A dispute over parking means customers have no place to park at Riverfront Cycle, shown June 11, 2018.(Photo: Judy Putnam/Lansing State Journal)

Hanson said he believes Gillespie wants him gone but Gillespie said he’s not trying to force Hanson out and, in fact, wants him to stay.

“I’d love to have him stay here. We have no plans for the building. Our goal is to have him stay there,” Gillespie said. “We want him to succeed.”

Gillespie also owns the vacant Corner Bar next door and is searching for a tenant.

Gillespie said he would work on finding a parking solution for Riverfront including possible off-hour spots at Lansing Brewing Company, which is owned by his wife, Jennifer.

Hanson said he may opt to move to a new location if business picks up, giving him enough revenue to pay for the move.

Many people tell him they got their first bike at his shop or at Van’s Bike Shop, which opened on the same block in 1955 and operated into the 1980s. Hanson worked at Van’s as a teen starting in 1977.

“I love the business,” he said. “…I just don’t want it to close.”

Judy Putnam is a columnist with the Lansing State Journal. Contact her at (517) 267-1304 or at jputnam@lsj.com. Follow her on twitter @judyputnam